Space Future has been on something of a hiatus of late. With the concept of Space Tourism steadily increasing in acceptance, and the advances of commercial space, much of our purpose could be said to be achieved. But this industry is still nascent, and there's much to do. So...watch this space.

Sadly, the NASA Authorization Act of 2010, which determines NASA’s policy, was passed by the senate today, heavily altered from Obama’s proposal in February in one key crucial area. Section 403 highlights the problem with the act--there will be no commercial crew development of space in 2011; commercial development of space is limited to cargo, but only in 2012:

On 3 June 2010, six volunteers, all men, walked confidently through the door into what will be their home for the next 520 days, the length of time it will take to reach Mars and back, plus spend 30 days in a “Mars orbiting” phase. This simulation, known as Mars500, is a joint project between the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Russian and Chinese governments. This experiment will study the effect of long-term physical and mental stresses similar to those expected on the long round trip to the Red Planet.

The first Teacher in Space program began in 1984, with teachers Christa McAuliffe and Barbara Morgan chosen from 11,000 applicants as the first to fly. Unfortunately for all concerned, McAuliffe lost her life with other six astronauts when the space shuttle Challenger blew up 74 seconds into its flight. NASA shelved the program, and for the next twenty years no teacher/educator has made it across the threshold of the next frontier until Barbara Morgan finally flew in 2007.

On Thursday, 2009 March 12, a tiny piece of space debris from an old rocket motor caused the three astronauts aboard the
International Space Station (
ISS) to don their space suits and hustle to the attached Soyuz spacecraft just in case—just in case the 13-centimeter-diameter (about five inches wide) poked a hole in their home away from home.

Sapporo Breweries, the Japanese beermaker established in 1876, is bringing beer into the 21st century. The new brew: beer made from barley descended from seeds that spent five months on the
International Space Station (
ISS).

Amsterdam-based MirCorp and Russia's Energiya have signed a deal to build and launch a commercial space station. This tourist destination will replace Mir, the Russian space station that almost-but-not-quite accepted paying guests before it was nudged into the atmosphere.

Under the heading "Daimler-Chrysler becomes biggest shareholder in Spacehab Inc", _Space News_ reported (August 23, p 16) that the company has increased its shareholding in Spacehab Inc (which owns and operates habitable modules that fly on space shuttle flights) from 1% purchased in 1995 to 11.5%. This makes Daimler-Chrysler the largest shareholder in Spacehab Inc. and will give it more experience of crewed operations in space. This matches the company's role as prime contractor for the European Space Agency's module on the International Space Station.

NASA has published a draft plan for using the International Space Station (ISS) "...to establish the foundation for a market-place... for space products and services in low-Earth orbit, where both demand and supply are dominated by the private sector."